My approach would be to use what we have and not shoot too far. That is to say, if we attempt to create a whole new treaty, that will be very difficult, because you'll need political will on the part of 193 member states of the United Nations and possibly more if you count non-member observer states of the UN and so on. That requires a great deal of heavy lifting.
The New York declaration, which was passed some years ago, was the product of some two or three years of heavy negotiating on these general principles. We need to back the United Nations on that.
Canada can play a very important role in ensuring that the United Nations bodies that are mandated with discharging their obligation under the New York declaration, such as UNHCR and the IOM, have the human and material resources they need to provide sufficient protection for persons of concern, whether they're refugees on the one hand or IDPs on the other.
At this time, I think all of us would admit that resources are very hard to come by, and there seems to be an increase in global conflict and geopolitical conflict. This is where Canada can step in to fill a gap and play a serious leadership role.
